Any HVAC guys in the house?

I had my Central air die on me yesterday ... there is a humming coming from the unit outside and the fuses on the outside and inside box are all good..(changed the outside one anyways).. any ideas? am I screwed LoL?

SketchyGrower said:

I had my Central air die on me yesterday ... there is a humming coming from the unit outside and the fuses on the outside and inside box are all good..(changed the outside one anyways).. any ideas? am I screwed LoL?

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the humming is your contactor, that means the unit is recieving the signal to turn on. so either your circut breaker is tripped, or possibly a bad capacitor. How did you determine the fuses were good?

took them to ace hardware and had them tested. I just bought new ones because it would figure the fuses would be next or something..lol

thank you for the info. I'm just going to take a wild guess and say it's the capacitor then.

did you turn the breaker off and back on. sometimes they pop, but don't look like it. If you take the cover off the outside unit. the capacitor is a silver round part, don't touch it, but a lot of times the top will bubble up or dome if it's bad.

No, didn't flip the breaker yet but, will give that a whirl and also before I venture in taking the unit's cover off is that harmful to the unit? anything other then not touching the capacitor..

Nothing to worry about in taking the cover off. Don't touch anything inside. If the breaker flip doesn't work, I can walk you thru fixing it. it is pretty easy.

Right on, flipping the breaker as soon as the lady is done getting ready for work. should be to long,

flipped the breaker and she is no longer humming outside..lol that mean anything?

sounds just like the capacitor i had go bad. $10 fix.

that would be pleasant to say the least LOL!

SketchyGrower said:

flipped the breaker and she is no longer humming outside..lol that mean anything?

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so you turned the breaker off, then back on and the humming stopped? Do you have the thermostat set to come on? is the indoor fan running when you have the a/c set to come on?

yes, I just put the thermostat to 65 (house is at 80) the inside fan is on and is blowing lukewarm (basement cool) air out.

Edit: never mind just went back outside and the humming is back on... so, humming and blowing air AC just not kicking on

if you want to go further, you need to take the side cover off. First, turn off the breaker. after removing the cover, look for the capacitor, it is a round or oval silver piece. look at the top where the wires go in and see if it is domed or oval or even busted open with ooze. also, if you turn the breaker off and the humming is still going. that is your contactor and may also be the problem. look to see if there is anything that doesn't look right. I have seen ants, snakes and all kinds of stuff get into the contactor. It also may just be a bad contactor. LMK what you find and i can tell you more.

Replace the contactor!

Most likely the capacitor or the fan motor on the unit outside, if you had a power meter you could turn it on and test power at the unit. With that said when it happens to me I turn off all breakers, remove the motor and take to a motor repair shop. I have never spent more than eighy bucks on a rebuilt motor and if the ac guys come and fix it they want 600/

[video=youtube;djm4h7nv2oI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djm4h7nv2oI[/video]

this is the contactor

chrishydro said:

Most likely the capacitor or the fan motor on the unit outside, if you had a power meter you could turn it on and test power at the unit. With that said when it happens to me I turn off all breakers, remove the motor and take to a motor repair shop. I have never spent more than eighy bucks on a rebuilt motor and if the ac guys come and fix it they want 600/

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Motor Repair shop...I need to find me one of them!

YEa BUDDDY!!!!!!!







I got my AC back!! bad capacitor and that was all..... Thank you VICTORYGARDENSHYDRO so much. spent a whooping $21 to fix it myself